Gabe Newell Coyly Hints at Half-Life 3 Development

Half-Life 3 may well be the most anticipated game in history, and development studio Valve is being tight-lipped about the game, but not so much so that Valve boss Gabe Newell isn't willing to drop a few—albeit cryptic—hints about the game's development.

Speaking on the newly launched Seven Day Cooldown podcast, Gabe Newell spoke of Ricochet 2—a game no one cares about—in reference to Half-Life 3.

"In terms of Ricochet 2, we always have this problem that when we talk about things too far in advance," he said.

"We end up changing our minds as we're going through and developing stuff, so as we're thinking through the giant story arc which is Ricochet 2, you might get to a point where you're saying something is surprising us in a positive way and something is surprising us in a negative way, and, you know, we'd like to be super-transparent about the future of Ricochet 2."

As I mentioned before, no one cares about Ricochet 2. There's little doubt that Newell is speaking of Half-Life 3—a game, which unlike Valve's other properties with exception to Portal—has an actual story.

"The problem is, we think that the twists and turns that we're going through would probably drive people more crazy than just being silent about it, until we can be very crisp about what's happening next."

Reading between the lines, it seems that Valve is unwilling to make any clear statements about Half-Life 3 or its development until they themselves are sure about the game they intend to make and release.

The company has clearly learned from its own mistakes, like when they made too many overenthusiastic announcements about Team Fortress 2 almost half a decade before it finally saw release as a completely different game.

It's only a matter of time before Valve makes up their minds and announces Half-Life 3—assuming it ever gets made.